Into the Wild

A thought provoking book which had me hooked from the start. Its dark subject matter made it a very unsettling but fascinating read. Jon Krakauer knows how to write pretty harrowing tales of survival in tough conditions!

Into The Wild (13/14 people found this helpful)

This is another gripping and highly readable book from Jon Krakauer. It looks at the life and travels of Chris McCandless as he gave up his ties to conventional society and sought a life unfettered and based on his love of the wilderness and nature. This book is interspersed with stories of other people who have gone off and sought that closer connection with nature, including one of the authors own. You can't help but admire Chris in this book, but also despair at some of his attitudes and lack of preparation. This has some wonderful quotes to begin each chapter and tells this intriguing story in a way that honours Chris' memory and ideals, whilst being completely absorbing at the same time. Well worth a read.

"An Appalling Innocence" (12/13 people found this helpful)

Christopher McCandless was twenty four when he headed off alone with the intention of surviving by what he could hunt and garner in the wilds of Alaska. People have since labelled him as reckless, arrogant and stupid - but with his idealistic yearning to emulate Tolstoy, Jack London and Thoreau, was he not in fact courageous and noble? He was certainly ill-prepared for such a venture and paid the ultimate price for his odyssey.

Jon Krakauer, the author of the book, had a particular, vested interest in the tragic tale. He too as a young man had experienced a similar compulsion to set himself against the wild elements, to rebel against his conventional lifestyle and upbringing. In his opening note, Krakauer seems to apologise for including his own story of setting out to conquer a mountain and almost losing his life in the process; but I found this account even more intense and compelling than the sometimes over-meticulous details of everyone encountered by McCandless in his last months.

The unavoidable conjecture as to McCandless's motivation, his troubled family background, and state of mind in his last awful weeks, make a compelling reason for using this book as a set text in schools. Most cultures have a kind of "coming of age" ritual, especially for young men, who have to test themselves, set themselves against the establishment. There is much in the book that should open discussion with teenagers - though surely there must be a way to opt out of the conventional path most unquestioning people's lives take, without sacrificing their own life, as most of the rather depressing examples quoted in the book do.

Jon Krakauer

Reader Reviews:

Don't go into the wild (but do read a really good book!) (2/2 people found this helpful)

Into The Wild (13/14 people found this helpful)

"An Appalling Innocence" (12/13 people found this helpful)

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